ACE #220: Reflections on the Phenomenal Life of Maya Angelou

Yesterday was a devastating and sobering blow to the nation and to the world.  For those of us who loved Dr. Maya Angelou, we are weeping on the inside and the outside.  If people have ever read any of her poems, her books, or any of her seven autobiographies, then like me, many certainly felt like they lost a part of their family.

In her lifetime, she was known as a civil rights activist, an author, a journalist, a poet, an actress, and a teacher. She was also known as Marguerite Ann Johnson, a fry cook, a prostitute, a nightclub dancer, and a performer.  But it was the honesty of her "backstory" and her will to succeed that stands out.  She was greatness in the flesh.  Like Rahab that saved the "Joshuas" of the world and the Mary Magdalene that followed Jesus, Maya Angelou will forever go down in the history as a prolific "game changer" for the masses.  She survived racism, molestation, rape, and poverty.  Our excuses, reasons, situations, and circumstances have just been dismissed by the example of her life.

Like many, I loved me some Dr. Maya Angelou.  While it is difficult, I do accept and celebrate that the "caged bird" has flown to God's celestial shore. And her final Tweet was perfect:

What a wonderful example of beating the odds and doing it gracefully!

Proverbs 31

³⁰ Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
³¹ Honor her for all that her hands have done,
    and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Rest in paradise, Dr. Maya ANGELou